On standalone basis, the revenue increased by 2.23% to Rs 1,051-crore and EBITDA jumped by 11.7% to Rs 1,32.6-crore. The consolidated net profit dropped by 3.6% yoy to Rs 90.7-crore for Q1 FY 2019-20, due to higher tax provision.

Rajesh Bhatia, group CFO at Uflex, said, “This quarter while our total production volume was almost constant at 1,00,814 MT yoy basis, packaging production volume was up by 4.8% yoy to 21,018 MT.”

To optimally use its film line capacity, Bhatia said, the company is shifting one of its BOPET film manufacturing line from UAE to Russia, since the production from this line was already largely dedicated to markets in Russia and CIS countries. “This will enable us to serve customers locally apart from substantial cost-saving of freight, energy and import duties,” he added.

Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director, Uflex, said, “Uflex has progressed exponentially in the last few years with its products, technological and engineering capabilities, keeping in mind the evolving needs of the packaging industry, along with environmental needs. We have been striving hard and making all possible efforts to provide our customers with innovative and sustainable packaging solutions that are also economical.”

Chaturvedi added that to ensure that the company is future-ready and have a better outreach of sustainable solutions, it is scaling up its operations internationally. “Our ongoing investment in Hungary, Nigeria and Russia to set up manufacturing facilities for packaging films attests our commitment to deliver packaging excellence to each of our customer,” he said.

As leaders in the industry, Chaturvedi said, Uflex is cognizant of the challenge that the noise around plastic poses. “To address this rather solvable problem, Uflex is working on a range of revolutionary plastic films that will be bio-degradable as well recyclable by nature, thereby reducing plastic waste going into landfill,” he added.